This invention is directed to a new fermentation system that drastically reduces the fermentation time and equipment size necessary to produce bakery products without corresponding reductions in the quality of the bakery products.
The bakery industry has been faced with the problems of rapidly increasing manufacturing costs associated with the steadily rising costs of labor, energy, raw materials, real estate and other such factors. To combat these increasing costs, the bakery industry began to look for increased productivity. The bakery industry, in its yeast-raised product segment, found that a logical place to decrease manufacturing costs was in the most time-consuming element, namely the required fermentation time of the bakery product. Various methods were developed to speed-up fermentation by means of various chemical and physical inducements. In the early stages of such developments, the industry found no apparent problems associated with the reduction of fermentation time. However, as the trend to cut required fermentation time continued, the industry has continued to face increasing new problems, including adverse and undesirable effects on the quality of the bakery products. Bread, rolls, buns and other bakery products started having decreasing amounts of flavor and aroma along with the gradual loss of other such desirable characteristics as texture, aesthetic appeal and good shelf life.
One widely accepted method to produce high-quality products is the "sponge and dough", or batch process method which results in the high-quality products with good flavor, aroma, desirable texture, and good shelf life. However, the sponge and dough method is also the most costly method due to the requirements of double mixing, approximately four hours fermentation time, and extra handling, all of which require much labor, space, energy, and time. The sponge and dough method is also intolerant of disruptions in the production process of even short durations thus resulting in higher waste if the process is interrupted.
Other methods of production include the flour preferment method, which normally contains up to about 50% of the total flour and which produces good quality products. However, there is some sacrifice of desirable end-product characteristics when compared to the sponge and dough method. The flour preferment method, due to the high flour content, requires heavy-duty equipment, large pumps to handle the viscosity of the high flour content preferment product, and high energy consumption for cooling. In addition, frequent maintenance problems occur in the heat exchange and process flow equipment used in the flour preferment method.
Another production method, the water preferment method, contains no flour, yet offers good yeast distribution. However, the water preferment method requires considerable amounts of water and sugar and produces below average quality bakery goods. In addition, such method is very sensitive at the yeast saturation point and therefore requires intensive monitoring during the preferment process in order to maintain bakery product consistency.
Still another method, the no-time dough method is very simple and requires no preferment. However, the no-time dough method produces lower quality goods that sacrifice flavor, aroma and shelf life keeping qualities in exchange for the lower production costs associated with the no-time dough method.
Finally, the continuous mixing method is convenient and cost efficient for the baking industry. However, the continuous mixing method produces the least desirable quality bakery products in terms of flavor, aroma texture and keeping qualities.
Previously, it was believed that the function of fermentation was merely related to the gas production in the dough, which would cause the dough to rise and expand. However, extensive investigation into the function of fermentation has established that several relevant processes occur during fermentation. Along with the gas production, there is the production of chemically identifiable substances such as organic acids, ketones and aldehydes which are end-products of the fermentation process itself. The bakery industry has learned that the only function effectively speeded up in a hastened fermentation is the gas production. The other relevant processes and substances have little or no time to be produced during a fast fermentation system. As such, those processes and substances are either missing or undesirably low in such doughs. These substances have been found to give flavor and aroma to the product and also cause the various chemical and physical interactions required for a good yeast raised system. Therefore, any compromise in the fermentation system will result, in various degrees, in a sacrifice of flavor, aroma, texture and other desirable characteristics. The bakery industry and the flavor companies and other food ingredient companies began developing compensating materials to replace the sacrificed characteristics, some through flavor chemistry, others through enzyme related materials. A few of these compensating materials have helped to partially overcome the blandness of these fast fermentation bakery products, but none of the compensating materials has really created or replaced the genuine flavor and other qualities that result from a good fermentation system. Therefore, the current remedies or compensating materials have not offered much improvement and the baking industry is still addressing the quality deterioration problem associated with shorter fermentation systems and the resultant dropping per capita consumption of bakery products.